Changshun Wang appointed new chairman of China Southern

China Southern Airlines has appointed Chang Shun Wang as its new chairman, after the previous chief Xianmin Si quit in January amid a government probe.

China Southern Airlines, Asia’s largest airline company by fleet size, appointed Changshun Wang as its new chairman of the board on May 27.

Mr. Wang, a vice-minister in the Ministry of Transport, was appointed China Southern’s chairman and deputy Communist Party secretary early in March.

Mr. Wang, a China Southern veteran who was once Si’s predecessor, faces the task of improving the image of the company after six senior executives were removed in the course of a year after the party’s anti-graft watchdog visited the company in December 2014.

People at the airline said Mr. Wang’s arrival was seen as a sign that the management reshuffle brought about by the corruption probe was over.

Mr. Wang, 58, is taking on a job that is likely to be his last before retirement. He last worked at China Southern as chairman of the listed company between 2000 and 2004 – a post Si took over – before leaving for the Civil Aviation Administration of China. He then led flag carrier Air China as group chairman from 2011 before joining the government in January 2014.

Si, who resigned from China Southern in January, was expelled from the party and handed to the judiciary for “serious disciplinary violation” that included suspected bribery, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a notice on its website on February 3. Si had abused his power to benefit his family, permitted illicit transfer of public funds, and his son had accepted bribes, the party watchdog said in the notice.